The European Election freepost leaflet distributed by the Royal Mail on behalf of the BNP features a number of people allegedly pledging their support for the BNP. However, all of these photos are from stock photograph websites, featuring people who did not even give their permission for their image to be used on these leaflets. The ‘British’ pensioners are Italian, the ‘British’ builders American (with a black person cut out), the ‘British’ doctor American, the ‘British’ mum and child are American, and the Scots’ Guard is disgusted by his use in a BNP leaflet. The ‘British’ Spitfire used is of Polish origin.
While it is not uncommon for adverts to use stock photographs, to claim that the people featured will be voting BNP is misleading. Presumably no BNP voter was keen to appear in the leaflet…
From Newspeak blog, who tracked down the original photographs:
In the last few days the British Nationalist Party (BNP) have started to deliver their campaign leaflets. There are at least two varieties but they are both quite similar and their main campaigning point is against immigration. You can see leaflets delivered by the BNP around the
thanks to The Straight Choice a website dedicated to mapping campaign leaflets. The current leaflets feature a section titled “Why we’re all voting BNP” with photos accompanied by a bit of text, presumably this is to encourage people to think BNP voters are just like you. Unfortunately for the BNP none of these voters are real and you can prove it by using web-based reverse image searches. UK The Doctor
“I’m voting BNP because I see what immigration has done to the NHS. As a Doctor I want to see an end to ‘health tourists’ and to make sure British nurses are employed and paid fairly.”
Search for this image on tineye and you’ll quickly find out that this image has been used on a number of websites and that you can buy it to use royalty free from a stock photo website. The image was taken by an American photographer probably in 2006.
The Pensioners
“We’ve seen how this country has declined under the present government and we’re voting BNP because they will put pensioners before asylum seekers and ensure our future.”
“We’re with the British National Party because it’s not fair that people who’ve worked hard and paid in all their lives are pushed to the back of the queue behind bogus asylum seekers.”
Search for this image on tineye and lo and behold it is available from the same stock photo website. Looking at the stock photo website you can find out the models are called Deanna and Mario.
The Soldier
“We’re fed up of being sent ill-equipped into foreign wars. The BNP will bring our troops home and ensure that British soldiers are not abused on the streets of our cities by Muslims.”
Again, search using tineye you can find that it’s from a different stock photo website. What’s particularly amusing here is that the photo is of an Irish guardsman, which is funny because the Irish are not British,
is made up of Britain , England and Scotland . Wales UPDATE: At least one commenter has pointed out that this is actually a Scots Guard, I assumed that the picture’s title was correct when I wrote the article. The photo has since been reported by the Sun to be Stuart Walker who has stated he does not back the statement attributed to him in the leaflet.
The Mother
“As a mother and wife I want to ensure that our children have a future. Our taxes should be invested in education and job creation, not wasted on paying bureaucrats or bankers’ bonuses.”
Searching tineye once again tells us this photo is entitled “Love my Mommy!” and was taken by another American photographer.
The only conclusion I can make is that no real BNP voters were keen enough to appear on the leaflets.
The BNP are not the first people to send out leaflets with fake people on, when there was a decision to be made on whether Manchester should have city centre congestion charging leaflets were printed encouraging people to vote ‘YES’ with case studies showing how people would be better off, again, none of the people were real (Manchester Evening News: C-charge ‘locals’ don’t exist).
From The Daily Telegraph:
'British pensioners' on BNP election leaflet are actually Italian models
An elderly couple pictured on BNP election leaflets endorsing the party's anti-immigration views are actually Italian models, it can be disclosed.
By Matthew Moore
Published: 7:53PM BST
15 May 2009 Pamphlets being distributed by the far right party to 29 million homes ahead of next month's European and council polls feature testimonies from five "typical Britons", giving their reasons for voting BNP.
The endorsements from apparently respectable members of society – including a soldier, doctor, and young mother – reflect the party's attempt to appeal to mainstream voters.
But far from depicting proud BNP supporters, the images are actually stock photos from online picture libraries that have been used by dozens of websites to promote everything from painkillers to caravans.
On the leaflet, the elderly couple are quoted complaining that hard-working Britons are being "pushed to the back of the queue by bogus asylum seekers".
But last night Italian photographer Luca Di Filippo confirmed that the people in the photo were actually his parents, who had only ever visited this country as tourists and do not share the views of the BNP.
The disclosure sits uncomfortably with the party's campaign slogan "British jobs for British workers".
Mr Di Filippo, who is now based in
, said he was astonished to see images of his mother and father being used to promote an extreme right wing party. London "I did not think they would be allowed to use a royalty-free image for political purposes. I'm really, really upset," he told The Daily Telegraph.
"If the BNP had been open about what they were doing and asked me directly I would have said 'no thank you'."
The false testimonies were exposed with the help of a new site called The Straight Choice, which aims to compile all campaign leaflets produced in every constituency in the run up to the June 4 elections.
Suspecting that the images on a BNP leaflet he scanned into the site were dubious, a blogger ran them through a "reverse image search engine" called TinEye, which traces previous appearances of pictures anywhere on the web.
At least three were for sale for a small fee on the iStockphoto website. The Canadian-based firm did not respond to enquiries about whether its customers were allowed to use images for political purposes.
None of the people pictured, including an Irish Guardsman, would have given their explicit consent for their photos to be used to promote Nick Griffin's party, which is calling for the immediate end of all immigration to Britain.
Stephen Paulger, the 25-year-old computer programmer who with fellow blogger Tim Ireland uncovered the ruse, said that the misleading images caused the accompanying voter testimonies – which could be genuine – to lose all credibility.
"In politics everyone should always try to be as open as possible. I like websites like The Straight Choice because they force politicians to be more honest," he said.
He wrote on his Newspeak blog: "The only conclusion I can make is that no real BNP voters were keen enough to appear on the leaflets."
Francis Irving, one of the team of volunteers who created The Straight Choice to "up the game" of the electorate and raise the level of political dialogue, said that he believed more stories would emerge as their library of election pamphlets grows.
"We hope to uncover a few political scandals and expose hypocrisy – like parties who produce a graph of past local election results but miss out the year they did badly. There's a whole bunch of interesting stories that will come out," he said.
"First of all we want people in every constituency to scan in the leaflets they receive, to create a resource for other people to scrutinise and analyse.
"We are doing this to restore trust; it's positive. I personally think politics is really important and there are vital things going on in the world. We want to reduce the gameplaying of party politics and make politicians focus on things that affect people's lives."
The disclosures will embarrass the BNP, but could also have legal repercussions. European election law forbids candidates to pay canvassers, who are defined as anyone who "by word, message, writing or in any other manner, endeavours to persuade any person" to vote for a particular party.
The Electoral Commission, which oversees all elections held in
, said it was unclear whether a model who was indirectly paid to appear on a campaign pamphlet could be classified as a canvasser. It would be up to the police to investigate if they received complaints, a spokesman said. Britain A BNP spokesman said that the images were "clearly meant to be representative" and denied that the party had broken the law.
"All the major political parties use actors in their adverts," he said." We would love to use photos of real police officers and nurses who are BNP voters but they would have lost their jobs."
He insisted the party's employment policies were not undermined by using photos of foreigners: "How on earth are we supposed to vet all our models?
From The Daily Mail:
How BNP 'backers' are really foreign actors and models
By Caroline Grant and Christian Gysin
Last updated at
2:29 AM on23rd May 2009 They are the leaflets the British National Party hope will bring them success in the European elections.
They feature a doctor, a trio of builders and an elderly couple, proudly backing
and echoing BNP policies. But the pictures have been exposed as a sham. Britain Far from living up to the BNP slogan of 'British Jobs for British Workers', the 'voters' have been revealed to be Americans and Italians. Naturally they never uttered the words they are supposed to have said.
Even a wartime Spitfire pictured in BNP literature was flown by Polish pilots.
Not real: Many of the pictures on this BNP leaflet are 'stock images', featuring unknowing actors and models
Now the models and photographers involved have reacted angrily to their images being linked to a party many people deem to be deeply racist.
The three 'British builders' are actually models who posed in
. The men have not been named but photographer Boone Rodriguez finds the BNP message particularly insulting as he is the grandson of a Mexican immigrant to the Portland ,Oregon He said: 'It sounds like this group is considered quite racist, which is despicable.' U.S. Mr Rodriguez managed to find some humour in the situation, however, saying: 'It is ironic that they ended up choosing images from an American photographer whose grandfather moved here from
. Mexico The 'doctor', part-time actor Bob Cousins, 47, from
, has never had any medical training and has never spoken to the BNP. Atlanta ,Georgia His picture is one of the most popular 'doctors' on the website of the Canadian iStockphoto agency and has been sold some 25,000 times.
He said last night: 'It is my personal policy not to publicly endorse any political party, regardless of their views, or platform. iStockphoto is investigating this misuse.'
Photographer Kelly Talele has been bombarded with emails over the BNP leaflets.
She said: 'If I'd known, I really wouldn't have wanted one of my pictures to be used like this. It's not something I would want to be associated with.'
The two '
pensioners' are actually Italians and the picture was taken by their son, who now lives in UK . London The use of the photograph has alarmed him so much that he has asked not to be named for fear of repercussions.
He said: 'I am very unhappy that this image has been used. This is not something that I or my parents agree with.'
A spokesman for the BNP defended their use of stock photographs and said it did not matter if the people pictured were genuine supporters or not.
He said: 'All political parties use stock images like this. It's common practice.'
He insisted that the quotes attributed to the models were genuine comments from BNP supporters.
The spokesman added: 'We would like to have our supporters in the leaflet. We still have them - members of the police and medical profession - but if they appeared they would get the sack.
'This makes no difference to us or our policies.'